Well, metallurgy has evolved quite a bit and there are some alloys available now for pistons that were not back then.

I suspect that between having MUCH better ECU's available (better resolution on fuel AND timing) and the advances in materials, the development possibilities have opened up quite a bit.

There are a lot of people who tend to stay with 'tried and true' methods and that's fine as long as they work. I like to take advantage of newer tech and don't mind doing some of my own development rather than just going with a 'plug and play' solution.

YMMV